Escape from Dimension Q!
by Coffee Fueled Author
Summary: Teenager Iz and robot Auggie are band mates auditioning for the biggest label around! But disaster strikes when their instruments refuse to play their song. Things only get worse when the two musicians are captured by members of a secret agency and are sent into Dimension Q. Now they must find and rescue 5 missing agents if they ever want to recover their song and make it home!
1. Chapter 1: Moment of Truth

**Hello again! It's been far too long!  
For those who don't know, I've had to make some big decisions recently. I'm going to be trying once again to get a up and running, as I have run completely out of funds. To raise interest, I will be posting a few chapters for 2 random stories I've had sitting around. I also have a poll on my profile page where you can vote on my new story ideas that interest you, and I will write the first chapter of whichever stories are most popular. If I can get enough patrons, I will be writing ALL the new stories AND I will FINALLY be finishing Out of Place! But only if I can get this to work out!  
More info is on the tumblr. The name is CoffeeFueledAuthor. Thats my name too!  
Be sure to vote!**

And now, please enjoy the novelization of Iz and Auggie: Escape from Dimension Q!

Chapter 1: Moment of Truth

This was it; the day they had been waiting so long for had finally come. This was their first, and quite possibly only shot at the fame and fortune they had worked so hard for. Today was their day to prove themselves; to finally become somebodies.

The anxious duo waited just backstage, nervously listening to the current band contestant playing their heart out. And though only three judges sat amongst the rows of empty auditorium seats, this one performance meant more to these bands than playing to a full house. That's because this one audition could very well decide if they would ever perform to anyone ever again.

The musicians on stage were only midway through their song; the duo behind the crimson curtain had no choice but to continue to wait. The weight of their anticipation was quickly becoming agonizing, and the two didn't know how much longer they'd last.

Iz quickly gleamed around the curtain with shimmering emerald eyes to steal a glimpse of the judges. She could hear the current performers succumbing to the stress, causing them to momentarily lose the beat among a few sour notes. The judges, Iz could see, were not impressed. The one in charge of the competition, seated center stage and decorated with a cap and sunglasses, mumbled something under his breath as he hurriedly scribbled on the paper in front of him. The other two judges had apparently nodded off. Their heads were slumped over the desk before them, their judging papers completely blank. Iz smiled to herself and flicked a lock of blue hair behind her head. This would be a piece of cake.

Pulling herself back behind the curtain and quickly adjusting her purple overshirt, she spun her head around and looked at her band mate, Auggie. The dull colored bluish gray robot seemed lost, his eyes staring forever into the middle space. His metal, clamp like hands were interlocked, his long arms sending a nervous shiver down them every now and then. With his magnetically floating head staying in a single point in space above his geometric body, he rocked gently back and forth on the single wheel that acted as his feet, not even noticing Iz staring at him.

Immediately recognizing Auggie was beginning to lock up under the pressure, Iz thought up some much needed words of encouragement for her metallic friend.

"This is it, Auggie!" She began, the little robots bright yellow eyes snapping up to hers in an instant and his three hair shaped antennae perking at the sound. "Do or die!"

Auggie smiled and reached out a single clamp. "All or nothing!"

* * *

Band mates Iz and Auggie had been working towards this very moment for two years, using every spare moment they had to practice their performance. Winning this contest had become their lifes' dream ever since Isaac had vanished without a trace. Isaac was a true musical genius, extremely talented with a passion to share his art with others.

For Izabelle LeGrand, or Iz for short, music was always an important part of life. Her parents were both musicians themselves, and they had young Iz playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano by the time she was three years old. But even though Iz could play the music, she never truly understood or enjoyed it. To her, it was just another chore given to her by her parents. But when she met Isaac, everything changed.

Isaac could play most every genre from Bach to the blues. His music had a sort of power over people, capable of moving even the grouchiest audience to dance to his rhythm. Iz was captivated by the mans music from the very first time she heard him, viewing him as a role model and striving to one day be as talented as him. Isaac was more than happy to take the young girl under his wing. Iz would visit him frequently for lessons, where he would teach his apprentice not only how to play, but the meaning behind the music.

But one day, Iz arrived at Isaac's house as usual to find he was gone. It was as if he disappeared off the face of the Earth. He left no note, no forwarding address... The only thing he had left behind was his shy robotic house keeper.

Augustus T. Robot was a fully automated machine with a complex ai and distinct personality. Fully equipped with all sorts of gadgets, he had been given the sole task of keeping the house clean. Isaac had picked up the curious robot about a year before his disappearance, but never really explained where he had come from. Auggie would be present whenever Iz came over for lessons, but he always seemed too wrapped up in his work to say anything beyond a standard greeting.

Isaac described Auggie as a quiet little robot who always managed to mess things up when only trying to help. Even though he had been built with a very human sense of self, he still was somewhat limited emotionally, and he often missed subtle cues of sarcasm or exaggeration. Curious and always wanting to learn, Auggie had begun to pick up quite a few unique skills in living with Isaac. He was often caught imitating the musician, pretending to play on invisible instruments and dancing to the music in his head.

When Iz arrived at Isaac's house that fateful day, she was surprised to find it was Auggie who answered the door. Even though they had never truly spoken to each other before, the robot invited Iz inside to voice his concerns. He explained to her that he had, for the first time, run out of things to clean. Isaac had gone out four days ago and simply never returned.

At first, Iz and Auggie were both incredibly worried, wondering why Isaac would have left so suddenly without telling either of them where he had gone. But as Iz continued her usual visits and the two exhausted any and all possible trails, they finally had to decide that no news was good news. Until they heard otherwise, they would assume that Isaac had simply chosen to bring his love of music to some other part of the globe.

Whenever iz came over, she and Auggie would talk about Isaac; about what they loved about him and how his music made them feel. The two bonded over their mutual respect for their absent mentor, and quickly became close friends. Iz began to realize just how much Auggie had picked up about music from observing Isaac, and eventually she brought a guitar with her on one visit and persuaded Auggie to play. He took to it like it was a part of him, and in no time could perform almost as well as his role model.

The two ultimately decided to form a band together in honor of Isaac, with Auggie playing guitar and Iz on her keyboard. Their skills improved with each practice session, and their bond only continued to strengthen.

And just a month ago, the biggest record company around, Screech Records, announced a special battle of the bands style contest. Whichever group won would receive a five year contract and a whole recording studio. Iz and Auggie were determined to win; not only for themselves, but for the man that brought them together.

* * *

The band on stage was just wrapping up their song, and Iz was listening carefully for their cue to go on. Auggie's electronic mind was racing; it was almost time, and he feared he would somehow manage to mess it up like everything else he ever tried to do. His bright eyes darted around the room, and he nervously rolled forward on his wheel.

"Iz?" He asked, begginning to tap his band mate on the shoulder with his metal clamp. "Hey Iz!"

Mildly frustrated, Iz refused to look away from the stage. "Not now, Auggie." She whispered. "We're about to go on."

Auggie continued to prod her shoulder, now harder and faster. "But this is very important, Iz!" He pleaded.

Iz, with a sigh of resignation, finally turned her head around as Auggie only continued his poking. "What!?"

"If I do anything that... That makes you nervous..."

Iz retalliated with pokes of her own, repeatedly jabbing Auggie in the forhead so hard that his floating head moved back a little with every poke. "You mean like tapping me on the shoulder?" She offered dryly.

Just then, a loud voice rang out from the auditorium seats. "Good job, nice try, adios!" It shouted impatiently. "Bring out the next contestant!"

The two members of the previous band wandered backstage from their audition, looking dejected with their instruments nearly dragging behind them. As the second one, the girl with the autumn hair and black jacket, passed by Iz, she lifted her solemn face in a half hearted smile.

"Good luck, you two." She sighed. Her gaze dropped to the floor and she and her partner shuffled out the heavy door marked 'exit'.

Auggie quickly turned to Iz with a new expression of worry.

"Don't fret." Iz grinned reassuringly. "We learned from the best, remember? We're bound to win!"

Auggie smiled, satisfied. Iz smiled back, then turned and lead the way onstage. She took a deep breath, ready to give it all she had.

As they went onstage and the lone three audience members came into their view, the only judge left still awake smiled excitedly at the duo and began to read their previously submitted application.

"Alright!" He exclaimed suddenly, startling his two coworkers out of their slumber and back into focus. "Our next two contestants!"

Iz and Auggie took a deep breath as they found their spots onstage. A gruff stagehand appeared with Iz's sleek keyboard, and he brought it to her and helped set it up. Auggie opened the large chamber in his chest and removed his gleaming red electric guitar. Iz quickly shot Auggie a few quiet notes on her keyboard for him to tune to as the judge continued to read.

"Let's see... Izabelle LeGrand and Augustus T. Robot, otherwise known as... Yes! Groovy Gravy!"

His two judge comrades whipped out their pens and papers, preparing themselves to write either glowing compliments or harsh criticism. "We've heard a lot about you." The middle judge lowered his sunglasses and gave the competing duo a serious stare. "Let's see if it's true..."

It was time. They had been given a single shot at fame and fortune. It all came down to this performance. The friends gathered their courage, shivering gently with anticipation. The song they had picked out was one they had written themselves using everything Isaac had taught them. They were positive that this song would win them that glorious prize.

With the confidence clear in her voice, Iz counted them down. "One, Two, Three, Four!"

And they took off, playing better than they ever had before. The music filled the auditorium with a resonating power, and the judges picked up their heads, becoming completely overtaken by the song. It was clear from their expressions that they were loving what they were hearing. Iz and Auggie smiled; that record contract was right within their grasp.

But only a few seconds in, something disastrous happened. All of a sudden, as if an invisible switch had been thrown, the song began to collapse in on itself. The notes turned sour, the beat became misplaced, the music simply fell into chaos. It was as if their instruments now refused to play the song at all.

The band mates panicked, baffled by their predicament and trying desperately to persuade their instruments to play again. But they couldn't understand what they were doing wrong. They were sure that they had been playing everything correctly just as they had so many times before, but it just wasn't working. Nothing they did could revive the shattered tune. In a matter of seconds, it was clear that it was gone. They just couldn't feel the music anymore like Isaac had taught them.

Unable to tolerate the insufferable noise for another second, the head judge sprang into the air.

"Hold it! HOLD IT!" He shouted, waving his arms wildly above his head in case the band couldn't hear him above the noise pollution.

Iz and Auggie finally stopped. They stood red faced, completely embarrassed with the sounds they had just created. They were so much better than this! They both knew that! So what had gone so catastrophically wrong? The judges, now freed from the musical torture, removed their hands from their ears and shot glares at the humiliated contestants.

"That's it! That's it!" The capped one seated himself again and furiously tore up Iz and Auggie's application, simultaneously tearing their very dreams asunder. With a snap of his fingers, he signaled to the security guards who had been hiding just behind the curtain. "Get these hacks outta here!"

The two tried to explain themselves, but barely had time to blink before the burly guards grabbed them from behind, literally tossing them out the backstage door like unwanted garbage. The failed musicians landed in a heavy heap atop their instruments, which had been pitched out only seconds before them.

And with that, it was all over. The audition they had been practicing towards for two years had been blown in an instant. All their hope of ever getting that record contract with Screech had gone up in smoke. Not only that, their image would certainly be destroyed. Once word got out of just how poorly they had performed, they would no doubt become the laughing stock of the entire music business.

"What happened out there!?" Iz shouted, crushed under Auggie's weight and still in mild shock over their musical disaster.

"I know this sounds strange..." Auggie mumbled, attempting to raise his free floating head from the ground. "But it felt like someone was tampering with my circuitry."

Iz's confusion quickly transformed into anger at the sound of her robot companion's voice. Auggie. That's what had happened. He had panicked and managed to mess things up just like he always seemed to do.

"Look." She growled, roughly knocking Auggie's bulky body off of her and standing up. The confused automaton looked to her from his awkward position sprawled on the floor. "You ought to be robot enough to man up to your mistakes! You were so nervous, you must've choked!"

He couldn't deny it; Auggie did tend to screw things up fairly often. But he was positive this time wasn't his fault, and he was determined to convince Iz of this.

"But, no! I..!" He stammered, but was suddenly interrupted by a loud noise. Two strange men suddenly burst from the shadows, closing in on the pair from either side. Auggie clumsily flung himself back into a standing position atop his wheel, and the two musicians stood back to back, completely at the mercy of these new intruders.

Both men bore the same outfit, consisting of a pitch black three piece suit and tie. One was Caucasian with silver dusted white hair and an eyepatch covering his face, the other was of African American descent with rough black hair and a huge, burly build.

The older man with the eyepatch leaned towards the vulnerable duo. "I'm afraid you two will have to come with us." He stated. Without hesitation, he grabbed Iz by the collar of her dark purple shirt, easily lifting the young teen a whole foot in the air. The other man, meanwhile, quickly scooped Auggies heavy body into one arm and used the other to pluck his detached head from the ground. With their captives secured, the two men left just as quickly as they had come, leaving behind only the bands battered instruments still strewn pathetically across the floor.

They knew this day would be important, one that they'd remember for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, they learned, it wasn't for the reason they had initially thought.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to Dimension Q!

**This chapter has a puzzle in it based off of the actual puzzle in the game. It should be pretty easy, since it's the first one. Give it a try!**

 **Remember to look for me on deviant art, tumblr, and that patron site that I'm not allowed to mention by name on this site for whatever reason.**

Chapter 2: Welcome to Dimension Q!

Still firmly held in the air by the collar of her shirt, Iz couldn't help but produce a puzzled and un-amused expression. Was this really what these strange Men in Black had wanted to show her? Was this supposed to be some sort of threat?

After they had been taken hostage by the two mysterious agents, Iz and Auggie had quickly been carried through a maze of back alleys beginning from behind the location of their audition fiasco. The journey was so quick, they had hardly been able to voice any protests or attempt to struggle free before the men had come to a stop at their apparent goal; a dead end dark ally where the only object of any interest was a solitary recycling bin, one the size of a large dumpster and colored a dingy, crust coated blue.

Iz continued to study the filthy metal container, trying desperately to riddle out why these strange shadow-like men had brought her to this very spot. What did she even have worth recycling? Had her audition been poor enough that they wanted to relieve her of her prized keyboard so she could never pollute the air with her noise ever again? But they had failed to bring both the keyboard and Auggie's guitar with them when the men captured them... She racked her brain for an answer; what would they recycle?

Auggie, of course! What else?

Iz could feel through her shirt collar as the men began to position themselves beside the dingy dumpster. "Look!" She suddenly exclaimed, desperate to save her friend and only other band member from being scrapped for parts. "I'll admit, Auggie blew it pretty bad out there..."

Auggie, who's head was firmly cradled beneath one of the younger agents burly arms (and his body gripped tightly under the other arm), blinked. It was upsetting to hear that Iz still pointed the blame squarely at him for flubbing the audition, even though he was sure he had done everything right. But now, he knew, wasn't the time to defend himself given the extreme circumstances.

"But!" Iz continued. "Recycling him is out of the question!"

Even suspended in a captive and vulnerable position, the rebellious teen cast a fierce glare of intimidation on the two suits. She wouldn't give up her robot without a fight.

But the men met her gaze with blank expressions devoid of any fear or concern. They held the unimpressed stare for a few uncomfortable seconds, and Iz had to fight to avoid shrinking down in submission. Finally, the older man placed his free hand and his sights on the grimy lid of the metal recycling bin, seemingly ignoring Iz's remark entirely.

"This..." He began, his dark voice similar to that of an old time-y radio announcer. "Is the gateway to Dimension Q."

With a hearty yank, the gray haired man lifted the lid of the aging dumpster, briefly bathing the entire abandoned ally in a brilliant flash of orange light. Iz and Auggie had to blink a few times to regain their sights before they could make out the contents of the waste bin. Instead of being filled with the expected assortment of bottles, papers, and other reusable metals and such, the entire container was filled to the brim with a thick yellow ooze bearing colorful rings of an orange red and appearing to be the consistency of table syrup. The initial flash had calmed to a faint yet eerie glow, and the musicians could swear they could hear the goo emitting a low frequency rumble like the growl of some monstrous beast.

As Iz and Auggie continued to stare, mesmerized by the sludge's hypnotic bubbling, they were surprised to find themselves being released from their captors and placed gently on the ground. Iz quickly turned towards the mysterious agent types, scanning their faces and posture for any signs of a trap. Though they seemed to be guarding the one escape route with their wide frames, they showed no hint of aggression as they gestured towards the colored ooze. Satisfied yet still unwilling to let her guard down yet, Iz turned back towards the recycling container and looked once more at the churning liquid. Auggie, who was too short to see the goo now that he was no longer being held, clumsily gripped the lip of the metal box and clambered atop the thing, balancing precariously on the edge with his single wheel. Able to see it once more, Auggie's face seemed to light up with a curious excitement.

"Dimension Q?" Iz questioned finally. "This is a portal to a dimension besides our own?"

"Dimensional gateways are hidden all throughout this galaxy." The younger but larger of the two men explained in a surprisingly quiet voice. "There exist an infinite number of these alternate dimensions, and with them, an infinite number of native alien life forms."

"Our agency, the DIA, is tasked with keeping these dimensions and our relations with these other intelligent life forms stable." The older man continued. "But recently we received a distress signal from our agent posted in Dimension Q. All our attempts at a rescue have seemingly failed. In total; Five agents have gone in."

"And none have come out." The younger man finished, an air of defeat in his voice.

"Take a look at this." The eyepatched agent fished a small electronic device out of his pocket and proceeded to tap on its various buttons in a chorus of tiny beeps. "This was the last transmission we received before losing contact with one of our agents, who went in attempting to rescue his comrades. The others, we now know, must have suffered a similar fate."

The older man turned the gizmo around to face Iz and Auggie as the screen began to flicker to life in a hiss of static. As the disturbance settled, an image of a bizarre man sporting some sort of electronic helmet and goggles appeared. The background of the video was in motion and the helmeted agent was rhythmically panting; it was clear he had been running from something when he recorded the message. There was a desperate, terrified expression on his face, with beads of sweat trickling down his brow.

"This is Agent number Four!" The man turned his fear stricken face towards the recording device, his voice and his hands shaking violently. "Please!" Suddenly, he began coughing uncontrollably, forcing him to come to a stop. His whole body quivered unnaturally, and his skin took on a sickly green color. He watched in awe and horror as his limbs seemed to lose their rigidity. Ripples radiated throughout his body as if someone were shaking some sort of gelatin dish. His entire form became more and more translucent.

He turned to the screen one final time in an absolute panic, screaming "PLEASE DO SOMETHING" just before his entire body seemed to melt into a gelatinous green goop, falling to the ground just as the camera recording him did. On impact, the video came to an abrupt stop.

Auggie, who had leaned his head in for a better look, suddenly perked himself up with a wide smile. "How exciting!" he exclaimed.

Iz was shocked at Auggie's nonchalant reaction to a man dissolving into a puddle before their very eyes. "How disgusting..." Iz groaned, feeling sick to her stomach. "Why would you show us something like this?"

"We have reason to believe..." The larger man began, his eyes quickly locking on to Auggie's figure. "That only a robot can resist the gelatinizing process."

It didn't take a genius to see where he was going with this. That's why they had kidnapped them. They wanted a robot. Well, Iz wasn't willing to share, especially if it meant risking the well being of her closest friend. There had to be other robots out there. Surely they could find one more suited to their mission than a housekeeper turned wannabe musician.

But Iz was horrified to see that Auggie looked like he was already on board. The thought of an adventure brought a sparkle to his bright eyes, and he was almost glowing with pride. "This is the chance of a lifetime!" He shouted.

Before she could talk him out of it, the older agent spoke up once again. "Indeed it is." He nodded, a sly grin forming across his face. "If you succeed in this mission, the DIA might just be willing to overturn a certain someones dishonorable discharge."

Auggie beamed, completely won over. There was no way he'd back down now.

Iz attempted to speak, but only managed to produce a series of utterly baffled and bewildered noises. Agencies, alternate dimensions, dishonorable discharges... This was too much information to take on all at once. Her brain fought its hardest to keep up.

Before she could riddle anything out, however, Auggie made his move. He leapt off his wheel with all of his might, diving headfirst into the thick ooze and disappearing completely.

"AUGGIE, WAIT!" She had cried, but her plea fell on deaf ears. Shocked, confused, and acting purely on impulse, Iz saw no other options. Just a few seconds following Auggie's dive, Iz, too, threw herself into the recycling bin and the unsettling sludge inside.

The older man smirked and slammed the lid shut behind them.

Iz had no idea how much time had passed before she finally came to again. With her back laying flat on what felt like cold asphalt, the girl produced a long, pained groaning, struggling just to lift her hands to her tightly clenched eyes. Everything was hurting. Her joints ached, her muscles burned; she imagined this must be what it feels like to have lost a boxing match. She tried to recall what she had done that would have left her feeling this run down. But the last thing she could remember was jumping in the recycling bin after her robot band mate. She released a growling sigh; she'd sooner walk a hundred miles than use dimensional travel ever again.

But had it actually worked? Was she really teleported to a dimension besides her own? Iz weakly removed her hands from her face, blinking a few times in rapid succession in an attempt to restart her fatigued eyes.

The first thing she noticed was the sky. Where she would normally find a brilliant blue backdrop painted with messy brush strokes of white, she found instead a foreign, dreary purple tone colliding with an unflattering dark gray. Further towards the ground, she noticed a cluster of depressing looking skyscrapers appearing to be just a short walk away. It looked a lot like some weird version of a city, except that it was eerily silent. She couldn't hear the ambient sounds of traffic or peoples voices. Iz could sense that this was not Earth.

As she continued scanning the surrounding ground, she spotted a strange dark blue object some 13 feet away from her. Straining her eyes, she quickly realized that it was Auggie's robotic body laying motionless in the dirt. His head, which normally floated just above his blocky chest, was absent. It took a considerable amount of force to break the magnetic field between his head and body, so Iz knew he must've hit the ground pretty hard when he landed. But, where was his head now?

Still laying prone on the ground, Iz rolled her head to look the other direction, only to find that Auggie's head had been sitting mere inches away. As soon as her tired eyes met Auggie's, the battered robot beamed a relieved smile, happy to see that his best friend was awake and alert once more. Iz tried to return the smile, but couldn't overcome her concern for Auggie's condition. His face was dented in several spots, and each of his three antennae hairs were bent. It seemed like they both took a beating somewhere in their journey through dimensions.

Iz groaned and began slowly lifting her head from the ground. "What a trip..." She weakly grumbled, her body aching all over as she finally stood up in a chorus of cracking bones.

Auggie grinned, still surprisingly upbeat about their new adventure. "Yeah!" He exclaimed, suddenly firing every hydrolic in his head, repairing the minor dents and crooked metal. "Cosmic!"

Now on her feet, Iz glanced once more at Auggie's fallen body to determine if he needed assistance getting up. He seemed to have everything under control, though. Auggie's head could move his body even at surprising distances, and the fallen frame was already finding its way back into a standing pose. Beside her foot, the robot's head continued to project a bright smile up at his human companion.

The enormity of the duo's situation was just starting to dawn on Iz. Though she was thankful that they were both in one piece, more or less, they still were lost in some alien dimension on some insane agency mission they knew next to nothing about.

Iz leaned down and gently gripped Auggie's disembodied head. "How could this have happened!?" She wondered aloud, lifting the complex machinery into her arms. Normally, Auggie hated being in such a vulnerable position, as his head housed all his main circuitry as well as all his memories and what was essentially his personality. Iz was one of very few people he found comfortable handling his most fragile component.

"Well..." Auggie began, missing the rhetorical aspect of the question and coming up with a very literal answer for his frustrated band mate. "I jumped into the bin. Then you tried to grab me. But momentum equals mass multiplied by velocity, and-"

iz's expression fell into an exasperated glare. She was in no mood for one of Auggie's overly complicated scientific explanations. She sighed, wishing she had known better than to expect anything less from her computerized comrade. As he continued producing a steady stream of mathematical nonsense, Iz realized Auggie's body had managed to find its way over to her, and she carefully positioned his still babbling head in its proper place, feeling the magnetic field take hold. Now properly assembled, Auggie began using his body to gesture along to his explanation.

Thankfully, the robot was interrupted only a split second later. His eyes began to flash a bright red as his body shook, producing a sound not unlike an alarm clock. Iz perked up again, quickly recognizing this odd behavior. It was Auggie's reaction to someone sending him an electronic message. Iz prayed it was one of the strange men telling them how to get back home.

Auggie closed his eyes and lowered his head slightly, opening a slot on his forehead to reveal a specialized cellular antennae. It took mere seconds for the entire message to beam into his database, at which point he retracted the antennae and obediently turned his back to Iz. The teen stepped closer towards the robot, carefully lifting the dark blue cranial lid on Auggie's head to study the screen hidden inside.

"Someones trying to contact us!" She exclaimed, watching as the screen flickered to life.

"Ten to one it's the agency!" Auggie responded with equal enthusiasm.

Before long, a message with an accompanying video began to play. Only a few seconds in, however, Iz realized something was wrong. The words seemed to jump around in a random order, and the visuals flashed sporadically. They could both clearly hear the distinct voice of the older, eyepatched agent, but they couldn't figure out what he was trying to tell them.

"This is garbage, Auggie!" Iz growled. "It makes no sense!"

Auggie, turning his head to face Iz, shrunk down in a somewhat submissive posture. "My inter dimensional communication facilities are... somewhat limited." He mumbled, embarrassed.

He was speaking in science nonsense again. "Meaning... What, exactly?" Iz snipped.

The robot sighed. "Meaning it's up to you to... Descramble the message..."

Struggling to retain her last bit of patience, iz roughly ground the palms of her hands over her eyes. "Auggie, you're a robot." She spoke slowly, trying her hardest not to sound angry. "Can't you use your computer to descramble it?"

"Normally I could!" Auggie quickly retorted before turning his open cranium towards Iz again. "But my central processing unit was damaged when we entered the space time continuum."

Deciding it wasn't worth getting upset over, Iz gripped the open chamber and pulled Auggie's head a little closer, making it easier for her to reach the buttons and other manual interfaces inside. Auggie's display changed slightly, opening the message using an editing software that began by splitting the video at the points that made no sense and arranging each piece using a single image frame in a time line at the bottom of the screen.

"So all I have to do is drag these icons into the proper order..?" Iz thought aloud, using the interface to randomly swap two images on the time line.

Yeah!" Auggie replied. "So that the message makes sense!"

Iz decided to listen to the entire message as a whole again to see what she was dealing with. She pressed 'play' and watched closely for where the program had cut the message into pieces.

1"Probe. This woman's hairdo could have saved Agent 1..."

2"You have a nice day. And remember, pepper is a better distraction than sodium chloride."

3"From the goo. Unfortunately you will never..."

4"At the salad bar. Finding the Q chip will help."

5"The XT-10 probe, in order to recover your music and..."

6"Your mission, and you have no choice but to accept it is to find..."

7"Get back home. You must recover as many..."

8"Meet her. So you'll have to think fast..."

9"Agents as you can. They have the code to launch the..."

The clips stopped there. Iz cracked her fingers. "Alright. Let me think..."

To be continued...

Can you figure out the message?


End file.
